2 of their 3 losses came from Dyrus being either camped, or just outplayed. I'm not saying it'd the only factor, but when he is put up against the wall, it does a lot better than when the opposing bot is focused.

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2) Its too easy for tanky top laners to turn a kill around on their turret which loses you kills and gives the other team dragon

That is so incredibly rare now in the LCS, and quite frankly I can't remember Dyrus doing it at all this split.

A poster signed by Richard Garriot, Brad McQuaid, Marc Jacobs and SmerricK Dart. Of course it would arrive a couple years late, missing letters and a picture but it would be epic none the less. -Tmon

The way to beat TSM has always been "Get Regi on tilt" but that isn't working anymore, Regi isn't playing and when he is he isn't being as dumb aggressive as he had been. Yes Dyrus got camped at worlds, but again that was because

1) Camping top was pretty standard meta, since getting that snowballing was super important due to the lane mechanics of the day

Exactly, I have a huge sample size of Dyrus being ignored and having TSM win.

Look I'm not saying that just focusing Dyrus is a magic panacea for success. I understand that the game focus is heavily based around mid currently. But the problem is that unless your mid can take advantage of it over Bjergson (hint, they probably can't), I'm just saying that I've noticed it's been a factor in the few recent losses that TSM has suffered. The thing about Dyrus is, he has great map awareness and roaming, and when he is not ahead and forced to farm by his turret (or further back) it opens up the map big time for the opposing team.

A poster signed by Richard Garriot, Brad McQuaid, Marc Jacobs and SmerricK Dart. Of course it would arrive a couple years late, missing letters and a picture but it would be epic none the less. -Tmon

Coast and XDG will thankfully not be allowed to stink up the NA LCS anymore. There are some individually talented players on these teams, so shuffles will be incoming especially with Nien stepping down, scarra sucking, and Xpecial getting benched. Shiphtur and Zionspartan from Coast will get looks. Xsmithie from XDG may get a look, but I don't know of any teams needing a jungler. The rest of XDG was shit this year, especially Mancloud, who regressed heavily under all the nonsense with Zuna and his brother.

The new wards have pretty much seperated the men from the boys this go around. Teams with no mid and late game strategy get curbed stomped with very little consideration or pause. If Cloud9 was the only team worth watching last year their definitely miles away from the rabble this year. Not to mention fnatic who are reigning as kings of europe fight now.

Coast and XDG will thankfully not be allowed to stink up the NA LCS anymore. There are some individually talented players on these teams, so shuffles will be incoming especially with Nien stepping down, scarra sucking, and Xpecial getting benched. Shiphtur and Zionspartan from Coast will get looks. Xsmithie from XDG may get a look, but I don't know of any teams needing a jungler. The rest of XDG was shit this year, especially Mancloud, who regressed heavily under all the nonsense with Zuna and his brother.

I'm excited to watch LMQ play, and I think that it will be a good narrative following them getting used to US play and learning the language.

Curious who will fill Xpecial's shoes. Seemed like he never made mistakes, which is more than can be said for a lot of the supports.

Yah, he hasn't really been the gameplay problem with TSM this season, although apparently his attitude is garbage. He doesn't like playing league and doesn't practice outside of scrims. His (Xpecial's) vlogs are hilarious as well, the guy tries to sound really smart and comes off as quite the opposite. They're doing tryouts, but the support from C9 Tempest (gleegarbu (sp)) has been duoing with Turtle. TSM's more pressing problems long term will be OddOne and Dyrus. OddOne is great at pub stomping and beating the crappy teams, but he's a weak jungler in a weak scene for junglers. Dyrus hasn't improved since season 2.

LMQ will be fun to watch. They won't be beating TSM, C9 or CLG much in the beginning of the season, but by the end they could be in the run to go to worlds.

I think that Dyrus hasn't really evolved, at least in the limited time I've been paying attention. The tank meta suited him really well but things are shifting away from that...especially getting 1v2d and not being able to farm up.

Oddone retires. Amazing to come in as new TSM jungler. This had to happen. Alex Ich leaves Gambit. Unless anyone knows of another good Russian speaking mid, they're done. They were probably done anyways, but it's Gambit.. who knows. Zionspartan and Shiphtur to Dignitas. Mechanical/champion pool improvements. May not translate into actual results. In game decisions were their weak points just as much as lack of player skill and weak champion pools. Plus, qtpie can still throw a game like no one's business.

Not sure this ends up working out for TSM. Gleeb does miss a lot of skill shots, but replacing a member a month before the playoffs with some guy that doesn't speak great English isn't a sure fire plan for improvement. They had a good chance at going to worlds as their only real kryptonite is DIG. The other teams they can and do beat on occasion.

The whole LMQ shit pile is going to make bringing more foreign teams over to the US a bit problematic. Feel bad for the players caught in the middle of this. For the most part, they seem like decent kids and a good addition (if a bit over hyped) to the LCS.

Unrelated, but this current meta and viable champ pool suck. EU and NA LCS are really boring at the moment. If they carry this into worlds (which they are pretty much stuck doing), it's going to be a complete snoozefest with the Koreans just crushing everyone. You aren't going to out PVE the Koreans or out pick them when the available pool is so small.

Watching the 3rd place OGN game right now.. I think we're getting a Korean repeat this year in Worlds. Nothing I've seen in either LCS comes close to this. China is always a wild card, but I don't think they can be as consistent as these Korean teams.

Usual suspects make up the EU contingent going to worlds. Only surprise being perhaps how strong SK looked overall (ALL still miles better) and how badly Millennium shit the bed. But ALL, FN, and SK are what anyone would rightly guess beforehand.

NA playoff just finished their first matches. TSM stomped DIG (who was slumping, but had owned TSM during the season). Not much to take away from this other than DIG play terribly as a team and may get relegated if they don't stop throwing games. Kiwikid won't survive the reddit pitchforks. In the other quarter, CLG got destroyed by Curse. They looked so bad. Guess all that bootcamping in Korea just taught them how to lose, which is all they reportedly did there. Seraph has been a bust, Dexter is average, and Link is invisible. Doublelift can't position worth shit in team fights and dies instantly. Doublelift's making post-stomp noises about retiring again, but who knows.

Barring some real awful shenanigans in the group compositions, the western world won't sniff the semis.

I really did not expect that TSM win. After game 1 it just looked like TSM's poor drafting and Turtle's awful positioning would cause the series to snowball. I even texted a "FREESM" to my nephew.

Bjerg looks really good right now, and despite his awful shockwaves, doesn't look to have an exploitable champion pool. If anyone, Amazing and Lustboy can be a bit exploited in that fashion, but rest of the team looks solid in that regard.

Koreans will still maul us, but the rest of the games should be interesting.

Alliance lost to the wildcard from Brazil. And it cost them a chance at advancing. I doubt Wickd gets dumped, but his champion pool always seems to disappear at worlds. Ban Irelia and pick away Ryze and he's fucked. Guy can't play a champ that actually has to make important in game decisions or requires any sort of mechanical skill.

Europe got wrecked. NA did better or as expected (will get 6-0'd in the quarters). China got all 3 past group, but looked shitty. OMG nearly didn't make it past LMQ. Korea looked like Korea. Turkey is bad at LoL.

I'm still baffled as to how Alliance went from destroying Najin White Shield to losing to Kabum. I think that's probably the most major upset in LoL's (short) competitive history. The only reason I can come up with that makes any sense is just arrogance. NWS didn't properly prepare to face Alliance and got burned, same with Alliance and Kabum. You're not so much better than them that you can just play whatever and still win.

At the very least I'm happy NA took a game off the Koreans. That's better than I expected them to do. I think it's proof that the other regions aren't miles behind like they used to be.

Of course, in a best of 5, I'm still putting all my money on the Koreans, but now there's a real chance we lose 3-1 instead of 3-0.

Outside of Samsung White, the Koreans looked vulnerable. Not necessarily in a 5 game series, but you can take games of them. For Samsung Blue, Dade still looks shakey at times. Najin White Shield looked good, but they're definitely the third best Korean team and got completely shit-on by Alliance. However, they got a favorable draw in that the 3 Chinese teams are in their bracket instead of another Korean team. I think it's still possible Royal Club or EDG beats them, but White Shield are still the favorites there.

On paper it looks like a Samsung White v. Najin White Shield final. I'm starting to lean to EDG possibly going through, but that's if they can right the ship v. Royal Club. Royal Club will, IMO, get destroyed by any Korean team. They do too much risky shit, and the Koreans will kill you for that.